To The Core

# To The Core with Intel Core i5-14400F + Intel Arc B370

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F with the Intel Arc B370 produces a distinctly entry-level experience in To The Core, landing at rank 2750 out of 2991 tested combos. The data reveals a configuration that prioritizes CPU throughput over graphical headroom, with the i5-14400F sitting comfortably in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs while the Arc B370 languishes in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This massive disparity dictates the entire performance profile, making the integrated graphics solution the definitive bottleneck across every resolution and setting tier.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data presents a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers a measured average of 132 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo across any configuration. This represents a 70% improvement over the Ultra preset's 78 FPS at the same resolution, making Low the only setting tier that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. However, the Medium preset at 112 FPS offers a more balanced compromise, sacrificing 15% of the Low preset's frame rate while presumably providing a more visually complete experience—though the data cannot quantify the visual differences, the performance gap is modest enough to justify the upgrade.

At 1440p, the Low preset again leads with 89 FPS, but the Medium preset's 75 FPS remains comfortably playable for a genre that does not demand twitch reflexes. The High preset at 65 FPS and Ultra at 53 FPS both remain above the 30 FPS floor, but the diminishing returns from Medium to Ultra are steep: a 29% frame rate drop from Medium to High, followed by another 18% drop from High to Ultra. For 1440p users, Medium represents the sweet spot where the measured minimum of 64 FPS still clears the threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 4K, the picture changes dramatically. The Low preset's 51 FPS is the only tier that stays above 50 FPS, while Medium drops to 43 FPS and High falls to 37 FPS. The Ultra preset at 30 FPS sits exactly at the edge of playability, making it a poor recommendation for anything beyond static scenes. The measured minimum of 37 FPS on Medium at 4K indicates that frame pacing becomes a concern at this resolution, and the 30 FPS Ultra result suggests the Arc B370 is simply overwhelmed by the pixel count. The data supports a tiered recommendation: Low at 1080p for maximum fluidity, Medium at 1440p for the best balance, and Low at 4K as the only practical choice, with Medium as a borderline option for users who prioritize visual fidelity over consistency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F brings substantial processing resources to this pairing, featuring 10 cores and 16 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture. The 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.70 GHz boost clock provide a wide operating range, while the 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core offer ample on-die storage for game data. The processor's 65 W TDP reflects an efficient design, and its position in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs confirms that it is far from the limiting factor in this system.

The benchmark data for the CPU paints a picture of a strong all-rounder. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21645 and single-core score of 3055 demonstrate solid multi-threaded and single-threaded capability, while Geekbench results of 11268 multicore and 2058 single-core corroborate this assessment. The Passmark multithread score of 25470 and single-thread score of 3701 further establish the i5-14400F as a capable gaming processor. In terms of its nearest rivals, the data shows the i5-14400F trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U by a mere 0.1% in average benchmark score, effectively a statistical tie, while leading the Intel Core i9-11900 by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-12800H by 0.5%. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS edges ahead by 0.2%, placing the i5-14400F in a tightly contested mid-range cluster where no single processor holds a decisive advantage.

In the context of To The Core, an idle genre game, the CPU's role is likely to be minimal given the low graphical demands of the genre. The processor's strong single-thread performance should prevent any CPU-bound scenarios, but the measured FPS data suggests that the GPU is the overwhelming constraint. The 10-core configuration ensures that background tasks and game logic processing have ample resources, yet the game's performance ceiling is clearly set by the graphics solution. The i5-14400F's ability to feed frames to the Arc B370 is never in question; rather, the question is whether the GPU can keep pace with the CPU's output.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the decisive bottleneck in this configuration, and its specifications explain why. Based on the Panther Lake chip with Xe3-LPG architecture, this integrated graphics solution operates with a 300 MHz base clock and 2400 MHz boost clock. The 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units represent a modest compute configuration, further constrained by 10 ray tracing cores. The GPU's 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 96.00 GTexel/s texture rate are entry-level figures, while the 48.00 GPixel/s pixel rate limits fill-rate performance at higher resolutions.

The memory configuration is particularly restrictive: the Arc B370 uses System Shared memory, meaning its bandwidth is "System Dependent" rather than dedicated. This shared memory arrangement, combined with the 25 W TDP, positions the GPU at the very bottom of the performance spectrum. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places the Arc B370 in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, a stark illustration of its limited capabilities. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all over a decade old: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 0.2% higher, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 leads by 0.5%, and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M is 0.7% ahead. Only the AMD FirePro M2000 trails, by 1.4%. This comparison to legacy hardware underscores just how far behind modern discrete GPUs the Arc B370 sits.

In To The Core, the GPU's limitations manifest directly in the FPS deltas between resolutions and settings. The fact that dropping from High to Low settings at 1080p yields a 36% frame rate increase (97 to 132 FPS) indicates that the GPU is heavily pixel-bound and fill-rate limited. The 20 ROPs are simply insufficient for high-resolution rendering, which explains why the 4K results collapse to near-unplayable levels. The shared memory bandwidth further compounds these issues, as the system memory bandwidth cannot match what a dedicated VRAM solution would provide. The GPU's 25 W power envelope is remarkable for the performance delivered, but it also caps the hardware at a level that cannot sustain modern gaming demands beyond modest resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2750 out of 2991 tested configurations places this pairing in the bottom 8% of all systems tested in To The Core. This is a direct consequence of the GPU's 5th percentile standing, which drags down an otherwise competent CPU. The i5-14400F's 83rd percentile CPU ranking is effectively wasted in this pairing, as the Arc B370 cannot leverage the processor's capabilities to produce competitive frame rates.

The data suggests that this combination would rank significantly higher if paired with even a mid-range discrete GPU, but as configured, the system is firmly in entry-level territory. The 2750th position means that only 241 tested combos perform worse, and those are likely to feature even older or more constrained hardware. For a game like To The Core, which is an idle genre title not known for demanding graphics, this low ranking is somewhat surprising, but the measured FPS numbers confirm that the Arc B370 struggles even with undemanding titles at higher resolutions. The ranking also implies that the vast majority of systems tested—over 90%—deliver better performance, making this combo unsuitable for users who prioritize smooth gameplay across a variety of settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU that is heavily resolution-bound. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 97 FPS at 1080p to 65 FPS at 1440p, a 33% reduction, and then to 37 FPS at 4K, a 43% reduction from the 1440p figure and a 62% reduction overall. This steep decline indicates that the Arc B370's pixel throughput is the primary constraint, as the number of pixels quadruples from 1080p to 4K but the frame rate falls by less than that factor, suggesting some CPU involvement at lower resolutions that becomes less relevant as the GPU saturates.

The Low preset scaling tells a similar story: 132 FPS at 1080p drops to 89 FPS at 1440p (33% reduction) and then to 51 FPS at 4K (43% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings—33% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K for both High and Low—indicates that resolution scaling is uniform and not affected by settings complexity. This uniformity strongly suggests a fill-rate or bandwidth-limited GPU rather than a shader-limited one, as the 20 ROPs and shared memory bandwidth would scale linearly with pixel count.

The Medium preset, which includes minimum and maximum FPS data, shows a similar trend: 112 FPS average at 1080p with a 95 FPS minimum, 75 FPS at 1440p with a 64 FPS minimum, and 43 FPS at 4K with a 37 FPS minimum. The minimum FPS figures scale proportionally to the averages, indicating stable frame delivery without sudden drops. The fact that the 4K Medium minimum of 37 FPS is above the 30 FPS threshold suggests that the GPU maintains consistent performance even when heavily loaded, but the overall low averages make high-resolution play impractical. The limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU's benchmark scores suggest it could handle far higher frame rates if the graphics solution allowed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured performance spans a wide range across settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 132 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure for this combo. Medium follows at 112 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS, indicating tight frame pacing. High drops to 97 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 78 FPS. The 69% spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates that the GPU is sensitive to settings complexity, but even the Ultra preset remains playable, suggesting that 1080p is the most viable resolution for this combo across all settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops are significant but manageable. Low leads at 89 FPS, followed by Medium at 75 FPS (minimum 64 FPS, maximum 87 FPS), High at 65 FPS, and Ultra at 53 FPS. The 68% spread between Low and Ultra mirrors the 1080p pattern, confirming that settings scaling is resolution-independent. All presets stay above 50 FPS, making 1440p a viable resolution for users who prefer Medium or High settings, though Ultra's 53 FPS may be borderline for some.

At 3840x2160, the results become marginal. Low manages 51 FPS, Medium drops to 43 FPS (minimum 37 FPS, maximum 50 FPS), High falls to 37 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 30 FPS. The 70% spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is the largest of any resolution, indicating that the GPU's limited resources are stretched to their absolute limits. The Ultra preset's 30 FPS average offers no headroom for demanding scenes, while even Low's 51 FPS would struggle to maintain smoothness in action-heavy moments. The data clearly shows that 4K is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the experience borders on the edge of playability.